POLITICAL TROUBLES. 603 



any personal merit of the accused, or because of any claim he had on the representative of the 

 United States, but solely because it has (most unfortunately) been the custom for foreign min- 

 isters to shelter political criminals under like circumstances a custom the most reprehensible 

 tolerated among eivili/.nl nations, and one which the well being of society demands should be 

 abolished. The enormity of this man's crime will be better understood when it is known that 

 he owed military elevation and position in life to the then President of Chile, but had become 

 opposed to him a year or two before, when the latter, for reasons of state or other causes, had 

 thought proper to designate a brother officer instead of himself for the post of Minister of War. 

 He, too, was condemned by the court-martial ; but the decision was overruled in the Supreme 

 Court, on the ground of informality : Arteaga, being a member of Congress as well as a 

 colonel of artillery, in accordance with the Constitution, could only become amenable to military 

 law after indictment by the Council of State and the Chamber of Deputies, to which he belonged, 

 trial by the Senate, and deprivation of his first-named office. Yet, such is the influence of 

 rank and wealth, it may well be doubted whether the sentence would not have been commuted 

 had there been no such informality of proceeding. Strange enough, the grave warriors who 

 rendered the verdict, gastronomes as some of them were, had wholly forgotten one essential 

 appositely alluded to by a favorite writer "first catch your hare," &c. 



Of the Egualistas there were twenty-odd proscribed. These embraced the same members of 

 the opposition in Congress who had been exiled during the Aconcagua difficulty, and who were 

 sharply sought by the police at the time, but were too wily to be taken. All that could be 

 laid hold of were sent out of the country under heavy penalties if they returned within a given 

 time ; the provinces of Santiago and Valparaiso were declared under martial law, and the 

 printing offices of the opposition papers closed. Such was the finale of the revolt. Let us 

 look for an instant at its probable origin. 



Pride, indolence, and poverty two inherited ; the third, partially consequent to the second, 

 and partially arising from the absence of the higher mechanic arts and industrial resources : 

 these are the causes of the turmoils which have continued to agitate all Spanish America since 

 separation from the mother country. The fortunes of ancestors gathered after the conquests by 

 grants or mining and commerce (not at all times the most legitimate or honorable), were some- 

 times seized for purposes of state ; sometimes tempted the cupidity of inquisitors ; or if by good 

 luck they escaped both Scylla and Chary bdis, they have subsequently been divided and subdivided 

 until in many cases little else has descended to the males of families during the last quarter of 

 a century than the pride of blood, and enough only to keep actual starvation from the door. 

 Climate and the absence of employment induce an apathetic temperament, and produce a race 

 eminently prolific ; and were it not that the same causes bring about indifference to their 

 offspring with neglect and great mortality among them the continent must have been 

 overrun long ago. But of those who do grow to manhood there are more than enough to 

 have supplied the professions of law and medicine, the army, and all public offices.* Monas- 



*In 1850 there were three hundred and twenty-five lawyers and forty-six doctors in Chile, of whom one hundred and one of the 

 former held offices of some kind under the government. The number of the latter is extraordinarily small for a population of 

 nearly a million and a half; but it will appear more remarkable when it is known that twenty-nine of these reside in Santiago. 

 There are five in Valparaiso, three each in Coquimbo and Talca, and one each in Copiapo, Raucagua, San Fernando, Concepcion, 

 Chilian, and Ancud ; not one in the country. There, medicas, as the women who administer simples are called, and haciendadot, alone 

 administer to infirmities. Nor could a physician be supported by his practice outside of the towns. The estates are too extensive 

 for him to attend the families on several, even if they tenanted them all the year, and peons are too miserably poor to pay. 

 Even at the capital it is not considered necessary to have a family physician ; and it is not unfrequent that a new one is called to 

 each case of sickness. From these or other causes none pursue medicine as a profession one moment longer than they can accumu- 

 late sufficient to purchase an estate or a share in a mine, and probably there is not a first class physician in all the republic certainly 

 not at the capital. At the same time there is no city where talent would be more amply and speedily rewarded, or the student 

 have a nobler field. The result of the system has been, that the municipal authorities find themselves obliged to publish 

 weekly lists of the physicians and apothecaries who must serve the sick when called on at night, or pay a fine ' 



The army is composed of seven regiments numbering a few more than three thousand rank and file, with twelve generals, four- 

 teen colouels, twenty-six lieutenant colonels, forty majors, and ninety-nine captains. Of course, a very considerable proportion 

 of these must be out of active employment and not in the receipt of full pay. 



